Hello all, just finished painting this Tradition of London casting. I followed Jeff's old thread for painting the British Command figures. I think he turned out pretty good but still need to work on my lines as I would like them to be much sharper. What do you think? Any comments on how to improve my skill?
FIW Tradition of London (1 Viewer)
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aujj65
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Hello all, just finished painting this Tradition of London casting. I followed Jeff's old thread for painting the British Command figures. I think he turned out pretty good but still need to work on my lines as I would like them to be much sharper. What do you think? Any comments on how to improve my skill?
Nope!....looks fine and dandy to me. :smile2:
Perhaps a dab of war paint? :salute::
Jeff
thebritfarmer
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theBaron
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Nice job, and in the classic toy soldier tradition. If I could offer any advice, it would be to try doing the eyes as a line with a dot below, touching the line of the eye. The dot, for the pupil, can be place anywhere on the line, to give the figure the look of focusing.
Prost!
Brad
Prost!
Brad
Malcolm Britain
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The pictures have marched off this thread sadly but the point about eyes is well made.
For me well delivered eyes can make or break the model no matter how much care has gone into the uniform detail. In general for toy soldiers I would suggest there are three types or levels of eye finish.
First is what might be termed the connoisseur finish where the face is really a miniature work of art aiming at the greatest realism and expression. The quality of some of the work shown in this forum in this style is amazing. The eyes here are worth studying as the best represent eyes as they really are seen by us over humans an in general that mean that eye opening between the eyelids is really quite small and does not show huge expanses of white. Not that the whites of eyes are pure white in any case. Worth a look.
Secondly you have the superior toy soldier style with a higher level of finish than the traditional glossy produced by say Tradition in its painted sets. This is characterised by excellent precision brush work on the main detail without being over fussy, a limited but crucial amount of highlighting which might include, amongst other things, buttons that "pop" as they have a tiny amount of black line around them and a more realistic face. Again the eyes make or break the figure and the best show little "white"
Finally there is the traditional toy glossy of which there are many examples from the commercial sets. The really traditional finish uses a line for the eyebrows and a dot for the eye itself. No white at all but this produces a pleasing impression nonetheless. Britains Modern gloss figures are a good example of traditional toy glossy where the eyes have a touch of white and, in general, this is well executed.
Having said all that what happens too often is that in an unnecessary attempt at detailing figures end up with enormous whites to the eyes. Examples which don't work for me can be seen on the John Eden
Studios website. Look in the tricornes and mitres section and you will gorgeous castings, beautifully painted but "ruined" by having eyes the size of the headlights on my vintage Bentley ( I wish!).
In the end it is personal preference but well executed eyes in whatever style really make a large difference to the final result.
M
For me well delivered eyes can make or break the model no matter how much care has gone into the uniform detail. In general for toy soldiers I would suggest there are three types or levels of eye finish.
First is what might be termed the connoisseur finish where the face is really a miniature work of art aiming at the greatest realism and expression. The quality of some of the work shown in this forum in this style is amazing. The eyes here are worth studying as the best represent eyes as they really are seen by us over humans an in general that mean that eye opening between the eyelids is really quite small and does not show huge expanses of white. Not that the whites of eyes are pure white in any case. Worth a look.
Secondly you have the superior toy soldier style with a higher level of finish than the traditional glossy produced by say Tradition in its painted sets. This is characterised by excellent precision brush work on the main detail without being over fussy, a limited but crucial amount of highlighting which might include, amongst other things, buttons that "pop" as they have a tiny amount of black line around them and a more realistic face. Again the eyes make or break the figure and the best show little "white"
Finally there is the traditional toy glossy of which there are many examples from the commercial sets. The really traditional finish uses a line for the eyebrows and a dot for the eye itself. No white at all but this produces a pleasing impression nonetheless. Britains Modern gloss figures are a good example of traditional toy glossy where the eyes have a touch of white and, in general, this is well executed.
Having said all that what happens too often is that in an unnecessary attempt at detailing figures end up with enormous whites to the eyes. Examples which don't work for me can be seen on the John Eden
Studios website. Look in the tricornes and mitres section and you will gorgeous castings, beautifully painted but "ruined" by having eyes the size of the headlights on my vintage Bentley ( I wish!).
In the end it is personal preference but well executed eyes in whatever style really make a large difference to the final result.
M